Category: Information

New Location for New Information

Hi there! I’m so glad you’ve stopped by! No matter how you’ve found my little corner of the internet, I’m happy you’re visiting. This website was a membership site that is no longer running in that capacity. There are still recipes here and links to various (hopefully) informative posts, but you can find all my current activity (new recipes, blog posts, etc.) over on totalwellnesshealthcoaching.com. That is the website for my primary business – my functional medicine health coaching business. I have begun posting new recipes there and I hope you’ll hop on over and visit.

Road Trip Photos

Well hello there! It’s officially summer and I hope you’re planning (or already enjoying) some fun and relaxed days! My family has been on a five week road trip. Yes, we are that crazy. We did this a few years ago (only four weeks that time) and it was so amazing, we decided to do it again. We only saw about half the country that time, so we needed to see the rest. With a 14 and 16 year old, we’re feeling the years slipping away and wanted to spend this time together and show them this beautiful country.

I’ve written several posts about how we manage our food when we travel (you can read those posts here, here and here) so I’m not going to talk about that here. My phone died as soon as we left our house and I lost everything on it and I did not have my recipe post quite ready for today so instead, I’m going to give you a little photo tour of our trip.

We live in North Carolina and are headed all the way to the west coast for this trip. Some of our plans have changed due to covid and somethings are just not planned yet because…of covid. Things keep changing so we’re attempting to be flexible, which I don’t love, but I’m trying. 🙂 Here are a few highlights so far…

Pike’s Peek, Colorado – The snow was so deep, we couldn’t make it all the way to the end of the trail. But it was magical!
This is a terrible picture, but people ask how we budget for a trip like this and this is part of how we do it – we camp as much as we can. We actually had pretty bad weather for camping on this trip – very, very cold – but we survived! This was Mother’s Day so I was allowed to “relax” in my sleeping bag while the others packed up. Such luxury!
And then we started seeing landscape like this and we knew warmer weather was ahead. Except that it was only warm during the day and still really cold at night!
Pretty scary hike to get here, but we made it to Delicate Arch at Arches National Park. This trip has definitely been a growing one for me – I’ve done many things I never thought I would! Lots of hikes and roads with very steep cliffs and no guard-rails!
Our teenage photographer requested a silly pose and this is what she got! This was in Zion and called the checkerboard for the way the rock developed this grid pattern.
We hiked down into the Grand Canyon – 6 miles in, 6 miles out. It was HARD! And HOT! But so amazing to be down in there with a 360 degree view of the canyon walls. This picture was from the morning when we were just getting started and had no idea what we were in for!
A quick detour through a town on Route 66. My son loves this kind of stuff! We live in a really interesting, diverse and cool world!
We had amazing seafood in San Francisco!
This one ate a whole Dungeness crab and enjoyed having permission to play with his food!
Yosemite – our favorite national park on this trip (Glacier still holds the #1 spot for all of us)
Hiking the mist trail with my favorite person. This was an amazing hike. It was about 10 miles, but took us to (and over and beside) two waterfalls and gave us some spectacular views!
More Yosemite
Yosemite again. It’s just that beautiful.
Hollywood! These are my super stars!
Made it all the way to the Pacific, a first for the kids and I.
And as of now, we’re on our way back East. Had to stop and visit Chip and Joanna at Magnolia. Kate and I had a great time here! We actually really like Texas. The people here are so down to earth and very kind.

We have a few more days to go and I have very mixed feelings. I’m a homebody at heart and so do miss the comforts of home, but it’s been such a wonderful time with my family. I’m feeling very, very grateful!

Is There a Perfect Dry Shampoo? I review 10 brands!

Five years ago, I didn’t even know what dry shampoo was. Now, it is a major part of my beauty routine. As a 47 year old, I guess my hair is not as oily as it once was and so shampooing every day is not necessary. I do, however, workout every day and because of that, on non-shampooing days, I like to use a little dry shampoo to make my hair smell nice and keep it looking clean. With a good dry shampoo, I can generally get away with only shampooing twice per week, which saves me a lot of time.

The issue is that there are so many dry shampoos on the market these days. I had used a charcoal based one for years (literally years because that one little bottle lasted a long time!), but I didn’t like that it made my scalp a little itchy and then when I scratched, I got grey under my fingernails. I know that’s gross and I’m sorry, but I’m trying to give you an honest review here.

So as soon as I finished up that charcoal product, I started trying to find a product I liked better. I wanted a very light scent (the charcoal one didn’t have any discernible scent at all), a product that actually made my hair look and smell clean and not cost an arm and a leg. I love bloggers and learn lots from them, but I do get tired of their recommending really high priced items all the time. But I did wonder if the $25-30 cans of dry shampoo were worth the price. I ordered 7 of these high-end brands in sample sizes and I’ll summarize them for you here in this one sentence: I didn’t really like any of them.

Here are the products I purchased:

My overall impression of all of these were that they left my hair feeling gunky, not clean, and the scents were overpowering. I kept smelling their strong perfumey-ness all day long and that drove me crazy. Plus, the aerosols made me feel like I was inhaling toxins. However did I survive being a teenager in the 80s with all that hairspray?! I guess I’m a pretty low maintenance girl and I like good quality products that don’t make me feel like I’m harming my health in the process. Is that so much to ask?

Of those seven products, the Amika Perk Up was my favorite. The scent was the least offensive and it did leave my hair feeling clean enough that I could go a couple days between washes. But is it worth $25 a bottle? Could I find something as good or better for less money? And without the aerosol issue? The IGK was the absolute worst in terms of performance. It made my hair feel so gross that I couldn’t wait to wash it – exactly not the point of dry shampoo. Moroccanoil worked ok, but the scent was like baby powder and absolutely drove me crazy.

I have used Batiste in the past and frankly, like it just fine in terms of scent and performance. Yes, the scent is pretty strong, but it dissipates pretty quickly. I certainly felt that it performed as well, if not better, than the more expensive brands. None of these brands I’ve mentioned so far are known for environmental friendliness or being non-toxic so we’re simply talking performance here.

After trying all of these high end products without success, I decided to check Thrive Market. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!? I guess I got “influenced” into trying those high priced brands. Oh well, live and learn. I have loved Thrive Market for years and should have known they would come through for me. They carry exactly three dry shampoos and I chose the Acure brand for brunettes. It comes in a cute, little shaker bottle like baby powder used to (or maybe still does). It has a very, very light scent of cocoa and peppermint. So if you’re a fan of a peppermint mocha, this is the dry shampoo for you! 😉 It works well, it absorbs quickly, doesn’t make my hair feel gunky, gets me a couple days between washes, doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and has no harsh chemicals or propellants. All in all, it’s the most perfect dry shampoo I’ve found. The bottle is small so perfect for travel or just easy storage. And it’s only $6.49. If you’re not a member of Thrive Market, what are you waiting for? This is where I get all my shelf-stable healthy ingredients for paleo cooking and baking and a lot of personal care products as well. I highly recommend you give them a try. You can get a free 30 day trial (with free shipping on orders over $49), plus you get 25% off your first order (in addition to the already substantial savings). Just sign up for your free trial with this link. 

In conclusion, I set out on this little dry shampoo adventure hoping to find a new product that I loved, one that would work well, smell nice, not break the bank (but I was willing to pay for a great product) and it would be a bonus if it was non-toxic for both me and the environment. I think I found it! Now I have a bunch of dry shampoo I have no desire to use so I’m hoping to donate that somewhere.

The moral of this story – yes, look to people you respect for recommendations, but also be true to yourself. Yes, I’m a blogger, but I am small potatoes in this world. No one is paying me to represent their brand, which means that I will always give you my 100% honest opinion. This doesn’t mean that what works for me or suits my priorities will work for you, but I hope that this information I’ve provided is helpful to you.

Most of these high-end brands offer trial or travel sized products so I definitely recommend you start with those if you want to try a few. And by all means, if you find a product you absolutely love, please share about it here in the comments so we can all learn.

Best wishes for happy hair days to you all!

Merry Christmas 2020!

2020 has been a year for the record books. As the year comes to a close and you reflect on all that has happened, I hope that you are able to see a bounty of blessings. Sometimes they’re harder to spot, but when we try, we can find reasons to be thankful.

As always, I’m thankful for this little community on the internet. We’re all here because of some health trouble we’ve experienced and are working hard to overcome. It’s not always easy and there are setbacks, but two steps forward and one step back is still progress.

As I pop in to wish you a Merry Christmas, I thought I’d share some pictures of the gingerbread house my family made this weekend. With my husband working from home, we’ve been able to include him in more of our festivities and it’s been so wonderful.

For this house, I used my Gingerbread cookie recipe as written (included below). We made a simple 5 inch x 5 inch cardboard template and cut out 6 pieces of all the same size. I made sure to bake them a little bit longer so they would be sturdy. I also trimmed the pieces using the same template as soon as they came out of the oven so the edges would be sharp. I made old fashioned royal icing with egg whites and powdered sugar (apparently, in addition to toilet paper, there is a nationwide shortage of meringue powder). I sent the kids to the dollar store with cash to buy whatever candy they thought would make good additions to our house, which they thought was a blast. Since my son now has his driver’s license, these little freedoms are super exciting. For all of us!

Some large gluten free pretzels, cut down to size, filled in the ends of our roof line and added to the “log cabin in the woods” theme my daughter envisioned.

And I’m proud to tell you that the house stood uneaten for all of three hours! Now, most of that was because the kids were at youth group! Ha! Some people make their gingerbread masterpieces and then leave them up all season, but not us. We dive in and enjoy.

If you have a little time on your hands and want a fun project, I highly recommend this one. Play the Christmas music, dance and be silly, and just enjoy each other. One more thing we did this season that was super fun – while decorating our gingerbread men, one of my kids suggested we each decorate one like someone else in the family. We all laughed hysterically at our creations.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. May you find the joy of the season that comes from our very best gift ever, Jesus!

New Beauty and Personal Care Products I LOVE!

I am a multi-faceted woman, as I’m sure you are as well. You can find me with no makeup, dirty hair, sleeping in a tent and hiking up mountains. You can also find me with my hair done, makeup on and in professional attire. I’m not one to spend a lot of time on makeup and hair, but I do like to feel and look my best most of the time. And I like to take care of my skin no matter what.

In this post, I’m going to review some new to me products that I think you might like to know about. I have a whole separate post coming up soon about dry shampoo so stay tuned for that. I’m currently testing 9 different brands.

For now, I’m going to review nail polish, deodorant and highlight just a couple of my favorite Beautycounter makeup and skincare products. Let’s get right to it!

Nails

You will almost never see me without my toenails painted and I will even on occasion paint my fingernails. I’ve worked for many years to clean as many toxins out of my environment as possible. This has largely included Beautycounter because their skincare and makeup products work well for my skin. I’ve worked with Beautycounter as a consultant for the past three years and continue to love their products. But Beautycounter doesn’t make every personal care product I need or want.

Nail polish is one of those products that Beautycounter doesn’t currently make. There are “clean” nail polishes on the market and I’ve tried many (perhaps all) of them and have been dissatisfied with the results. I would spend so much time on my mani/pedi, just to have the polish chip almost immediately. Then I found Dazzle Dry. This polish has been life changing – as much as a nail polish can be life changing. Let’s keep some perspective and realize that we’re talking nail polish, not world peace. 🙂 But if I’m going to take time out of my busy day to do my nails, then I want it to last. Dazzle Dry is like a gel polish. It lasts weeks. Weeks! And it dries super, duper fast. Anyone else paint their toes and then promptly forget and put on shoes? Yeah, me too. It’s super frustrating, but with Dazzle Dry I just have to remember for about a half hour and then my polish is completely dry. And unlike gel polish, you don’t have to go to a salon to have it removed. You can remove it at home with your regular nail polish remover. Dazzle Dry does sell a polish remover, but I have so much already at home that I decided not to invest in theirs for now. And speaking of investing, these products are expensive. High quality products usually are. For me, a bottle of polish will usually last a couple years and I do use it often, so I don’t mind paying more for something that is 1. not doing me harm, 2. is a joy to use and 3. high quality. The other thing about Dazzle Dry that I love is the shape of their brushes. I’ve never used a brush that was so easy to use and get my polish just where I want it. Usually my manicures end up with polish all over my fingers – which is largely why I don’t paint my fingernails very often. I don’t know what it is about their brushes, but I consider it magic.

I bought the “full system,” which contains the Nail Prep, Base Coat, Top Coat, Revive (which is what you add to your polish as it gets thicker over time to restore the proper consistency) and one polish/lacquer color. This set costs $75. Dazzle Dry has a popup on their website that offers you 20% off your first order so I recommend using that for a discount. One lacquer costs $18. I bought a set of four different shades during their Labor Day sale. So watch for the sales and stock up.

Deodorant

Deodorant was another big hole in Beautycounter’s product line for a long time. They do now have a clean deodorant line that is just releasing this fall, but I already use and love Native brand. I went through many “safe, healthy, natural, non-toxic” deodorants and none worked for me long-term. I used to make my own and that worked better than any other, but after a while, it was no longer effective. Why is that??? Here in the south, we need deodorant and we need it to work.

The issue with buying from a lot of these healthy brands these days is that their products are not sold in stores so you need to find one with a good return policy. Native has an excellent shipping and return policy.

I ordered one of their Travel Sample Sets for $24 so that I could try out several scents. People rave over the coconut and vanilla scent, but it wasn’t for me. Of this set, I liked the scent of the charcoal the best. It’s a light floral scent. My son and husband used all the others. But when I was checking out from that first purchase, I was offered a trial size of a different scent – Peony and Jasmine Tea. I bought it – I think it was $2 – and fell in love with the scent. And I really think this scent actually works better for me than the others. I know the formulas are the same so that really doesn’t make sense, but I feel like this particular scent works the best for me. The charcoal also works well. The jasmine and peony scent is seasonal so I stocked up in the spring when it was available, but even still, I think I’ll run out before it comes back next year (I’m assuming and hoping that it will). If I need to, I’ll buy the charcoal in the mean time. My son and husband like that one the best as well. Native has a line for teens as well and my daughter likes the Loco for Coco. And most importantly – my teenagers do not stink when they wear this deodorant. Non-stinky teenagers – this stuff is worth it’s weight in gold! Plus, I know that from the very start, they’re using products that are not cancer-causing. This brand has been a game changer for us. So even though I work for Beautycounter and genuinely love their products, I don’t think I’m even going to try their new deodorant. As they say, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Two more things – the Native deodorant does not stain my clothes, leave white marks or irritate my skin.

At one point, Native offered some sort of boxed set of deodorant and soap and so I tried their charcoal bath soap and I absolutely love it too. It’s $8 for two bars and these bars last forever. I’m telling you, I used to use Dr. Bronner’s and I’d go through a bar every 2-3 weeks. One of these Native bars lasts me 6-8 weeks. It’s crazy. And they have that same nice scent as the charcoal deodorant. Native describes it as “fresh mineral with citrus undertones.” I guess I get the slight citrus, but the fresh mineral translates to my nose as a very light, fresh floral. You would think the charcoal products would have a more masculine scent, but they’re very neutral and I think slightly more feminine. Anyhoo, as I said, both my boys use it too and they don’t smell feminine when they wear it. 🙂

Wow, this is getting really long and I’ve just talked about nail polish and deodorant. I’m going to highlight a couple of my favorite Beautycounter products and then we’ll wrap this up for today. I continue to try new products as they come on the market because I want to be using the very best my money can buy, both in terms of performance and safety. Just because I have loved Beautycounter up until now, doesn’t mean something new and better won’t come along. I want to keep an open mind because I want to be steering you in the right direction. So please do check back soon for the dry shampoo review and know that I’m continuing to research these personal care products over here and when I hit on something really great, I’ll definitely let you know.

In the interest of time, I’m just going to talk about two of my Beautycounter favorites, one skincare and one makeup product.

Skincare

For skincare, I use the Countertime line and absolutely love it. It has transformed my skin. I never had beautiful, smooth, even skin. My skin is blotchy, I have lots of freckles, get really bad melasma (hyperpigmentation splotches) in the summer and have huge pores. I do believe that all the products I use have helped, but the Countertime line is the majority of that. I use a couple treatments products too, but not as regularly. We can talk about those in another post.

The Countertime Regimen includes 6 products, all formulated to work together to make a complete skin care system. This set costs $382. I use 2-3 bottles of the cleansing oil each year, but all of the other products have lasted me an entire year or more. Here is a description of each product in the regimen:

Countertime Lipid Defense Cleansing Oil (150 ML / 5 FL OZ): Inspired by Asian beauty rituals, this luxurious, lightweight cleansing oil gently yet effectively removes makeup and other impurities without stripping essential lipids from the skin.

Countertime Mineral Boost Hydrating Essence (150 ML / 5 FL OZ): Lightweight but deeply nourishing, this milky moisturizing essence delivers vital nutrients to the skin’s moisture barrier—instantly boosting hydration and radiance.

Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum (30 ML / 1 FL OZ): This transformative rejuvenating treatment visibly increases skin firmness and elasticity, while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Countertime Antioxidant Soft Cream (50 ML / 1.7 FL OZ): This velvety revitalizing cream improves skin’s barrier function and boosts hydration, which helps protect it from daily environmental stressors.

Countertime Tetrapeptide Supreme Cream (50 ML / 1.7 FL OZ): Supremely rich and deeply hydrating, this cream supports elasticity and visibly firms while smoothing skin texture to minimize the look of fine lines and wrinkles.

Ultra Renewal Eye Cream (15 ML / 0.5 FL OZ): This high-performance eye cream revitalizes the eye area and reduces the appearance of under-eye shadows and crow’s feet for a smooth, firmed look.

Makeup

The one makeup product I want to highlight is the Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer. This was one of the very first Beautycounter products I tried and I have been a devotee ever since.  One tube costs $45 and lasts me about 6 months and I use it every single day. To me, the Dew Skin offers just the right amount of coverage so I feel like I’m smoothing out any imperfections and also protecting my skin with SPF.

This is how the product is described on our website:

This sheer-coverage tinted moisturizer helps even skin tone as it protects against sun’s damaging rays with SPF 20 mineral sunscreen. The formula features a blend of black currant seed oil, peony root extract, and vitamin C to help brighten while leaving skin looking radiant. With continued use, skin will feel firmer and look more luminous. Offers sheer coverage, luminous finish and glow-boosting ingredients. Has been clinically proven to increase skin firmness and elasticity.

I really wanted to highlight our new Skin Twin Concealer but it hasn’t released yet. The consultants had the opportunity to preview it and it is the concealer I’ve been waiting for.  It goes on smooth, doesn’t cake into fine lines, is buildable so you can get a little more coverage in a specific area, and comes in so many shades that you will definitely be able to find just the right shade for you. This past year has been extremely busy and stressful for me and that stress has shown up in dark circles under my eyes. I feel like I’ve tried all the “clean” brands of concealer and don’t like any of them. I found one that does cover well, but it’s really thick. So thick that it hurts a bit to rub it in well and then it settles into those fine lines under my eyes. (It’s called Fitglow Beauty, if you’re interested in giving it a try, $42) All that to say, I’m thrilled with Beautycounter’s new concealer and can’t wait to introduce it to you! The new concealer launches October 20th and will be $31. If you have been using our Touch Up Concealer Pen, the new concealer will contain 160% more product!!! It’s a great product and a really great value.

I realize these safe skincare products are expensive, but they are worth it. I save money in other places – we camp rather than staying in hotels, we cook at home rather than eating out, I don’t get many haircuts, I do my own nails, etc. I think you have to decide where you’re going to put your resources. Are you going to invest in health care or sick care? You can either spend your resources on staying as healthy as you possibly can, inside and out or you can save money on food and personal care products and then spend your money treating your resulting illnesses. I’m sorry if that feels a little preachy and I don’t mean it that way. I guess I still feel a little hesitant about sharing that my family pays more for high quality food and personal care products because a lot of people still don’t buy into this lifestyle to that degree. But we’ve been doing this for a long time and it works for us. And by works, I mean that we are healthy. Sure, we get a cold or two in the winter time, but that’s it. I have a serious, chronic, autoimmune condition, that has been in remission for years. My husband does too. Whereas he will always need medication (insulin) because it is vital for life and his body doesn’t make it anymore, he is otherwise healthy and has no complications. So we’ve decided that these expenses are worth it. I’d love to talk more with you about environmental toxins if you’re interested in cleaning up your home and your personal care routine. I’ve been researching these topics for years and have lots of experience with the good, the bad and the ugly.

Thanks for reading today and I hope you found this helpful.

Disclosure: My links to Dazzle Dry and Native are not affiliate links, meaning I make no income from you clicking on these links. Native offers free shipping and free returns. Their customer service is awesome. I don’t have a discount code for them, but if you place an order, you will get on their mailing list and will receive special offers and notice of sales. I stock up during their sales. Dazzle Dry offers a 20% off coupon if you sign up for their email list. The Beautycounter links are for my personal website as I am an employee (independent consultant) for that company and make a commission on any sales. I appreciate your business!

Easy and Delicious Travel Menu

My family and I just returned from a much needed and very much appreciated week away. We live in the Piedmont of North Carolina, where it is very hot and humid in the summer and we escaped to one of our very favorite places, the mountains of our very own state. It’s amazing to me that we can travel just a few hours and experience completely different weather – and I’m super thankful that we can!

We love to hike and bike and just be outdoors as much as possible, but we definitely limit our outdoor activity in the summer because this mama does not enjoy the heat and humidity. So when we have a chance to get away where the air is cool and crisp, we do it!

Keeping in mind all the current restrictions in our state (limits on sizes of gatherings, mandatory masks in public, social distancing), we wanted to be able to get away, but knew that we did not want to have to rely on grocery stores or restaurants for our meals.

We picked up my niece, who lives in the area, and dragged her along for a couple days of hiking. The cousins don’t get to spend a whole lot of time together so this was extra special.
See that big rock at the bottom of the picture – my family climbed down a ladder on the other side of that and I was a wee bit too chicken to go where they were going. So I sat atop those big rocks and enjoyed the beautiful view and amazing weather. It was actually a tad chilly after a few minutes. I almost feel guilty saying that in July!
My view just facing the other direction. God in all His glory on display right here!

You can read more about our typical travel eating routine in this post (and others linked there), so this post will focus on dinners only. Frankly, because of my intermittent fasting routine, I don’t mess with breakfast, other than coffee, and lunch is always a mish-mash of picnic fare that I throw in the cooler before we head out the door for that day’s activities.

When I planned our meals for our week away, I knew that I would be traveling separately from my husband and son, which meant that my daughter and I would be doing all the heavy lifting. Consequently, I didn’t want lots and lots of things and I didn’t want a huge, over-stuffed cooler that I could not manage to haul up a couple flights of stairs. My meals were all delicious, satisfying for hungry hikers, easy and fast to prepare and required very simple ingredients for me to pack.

If you’re traveling now, during the Covid times, or later and simply like the idea of or need to prepare your own meals more often than not, I hope my meals will give you some ideas.

In this post, I’ll list our meals and show you pictures, and below, there will be a pdf document you can print out that lists all the food we brought along for these dinners, plus our breakfasts and lunches.

First day – after driving and hauling in all the luggage, food, and everything else we needed for the week, I knew I was not going to want to cook so I planned a salad for myself and my daughter enjoyed a grilled sandwich, some chips and watermelon. 

My traveling buddy
If you know the North Carolina mountains, that’s Grandfather mountain in the background.
My salad with mixed greens, carrots, deli turkey, toasted nuts and a few of those yummy plantain chips from Trader Joe’s.

My boys arrived from a weekend backpacking trip tired, wet and hungry! I prepared a very quick, but hearty dinner for them. We had quick trip chicken, rice and broccoli and cauliflower. 

I told everybody what the meal choices were for the week and they all voted which one they wanted which night. The unanimous decision for day two was burgers. We had simple burgers with gluten free buns, tater tots, sweet potato tots (because you can never have too many tots) and a big pile of greens. I mixed up a recipe of balsamic vinaigrette before I left home, stored it in a mason jar and we ate that on our greens all week. 

Next up, shrimp stir-fry. This was so simple, I think we’ll be eating this meal all the time! I dumped two bags of “stir fry vegetables” straight out of the freezer into my pan with a little avocado oil. Once they were cooked to my liking, I added about a pound of thawed, peeled and deveined shrimp, a little salt and pepper and stirred that around until the shrimp were done, which just took a couple minutes. While the veggies were cooking, I made my sauce by boiling together some coconut aminos, a little maple syrup, ground ginger and garlic powder to make a sauce. Once the shrimp were done, I poured the sauce over the top, mixed it all together and served it over some more white rice.

For our next dinner, we had spaghetti and salad. Super simple and yet still hearty and delicious. This was simply a pound of ground beef that I browned and added to a jar of marinara sauce. I had a few miscellaneous vegetables I brought from my crisper drawer at home that would have gone bad while we were away. I just sautéed those in a separate skillet, cooked a box of gluten free pasta and everyone had sauce with either pasta or vegetables or a little of both. Again, we had salad on the side.

Breakfast for dinner is always popular! We had pancakes made with my all purpose paleo baking mix, bacon and clementines for the fruit course. 

And last, but definitely not least – pizza! Everybody loves pizza night, which is typically Friday in our house. The gang all voted to keep with that tradition even on vacation. More salad for our side dish. 

Extras:

I brought half a watermelon from home (a huge one!). I cut it up the first day we arrived and everyone ate that all week long. I also baked a couple batches of cookies that served as dessert all week – both at “home” and for our picnic lunches. Conveniently, I had planned to make two batches of cookies and one child requested molasses gingerbread and the other requested monster cookies (recipe coming soon). My husband will eat any cookies that don’t eat him first, so he’s pretty easy to please. We all practiced a lot of self-restraint and managed to make these last until the very last night.

For breakfast, I made a batch of my mini quiches, and brought those frozen. My husband often makes grits to go with his eggs so I poured some in a baggie and brought that along. I also made a batch of pumpkin bread, bought one box of cereal and my family made their breakfasts from those items all week.

For lunch, we pack a cooler so we can eat wherever we happen to be when hunger strikes. I bring a bag with paper plates and napkins too so we can be a little civilized. Lunch foods are typically lunch meat, cheese, fruit, greens, carrots, apples, chips and cookies.

And there you have it! Our very simple meal plan for a week away when you want to eat good tasting and good quality food, but not spend all your time in the kitchen. Below you will find a printable PDF that lists all the food I packed, categorized by pantry, fridge and freezer. I’ll also include what I packed for breakfasts and lunches.

If you have your own favorite travel meals, please share them in the comments.

travel menu and grocery list

Weekly Meal Plan: Quarantine Week 9

How are you hanging in there? It has certainly been a strange few months, has it not? I always recommend keeping a gratitude journal because sometimes, life can seem pretty bleak, but if you try, you can almost always find something to be thankful for and that exercise can totally turn around your heart, mind and outlook.

Please know that just because I am not going to extensively discuss the racial hurts and struggles and devastation going on in our country in this space does not mean that I don’t care. It just means that I am choosing to keep this space a place that encourages you in your walk to eat well to beat disease since that is what I do best. We have had so many hard conversations in my house this week, we are praying fervently for healing and wisdom in how to move forward, but I’ve been seeking a respite from these hard topics and all of the typically light content I find online has just been more heaviness. Please hear my heart: I care and I am turning to the one source I know for wisdom and guidance and that is the Lord God. So please don’t take my lack of discussion of these topics here as complacence or lack of concern. I care deeply.

Amongst all the hard news, there has been some encouraging economic news this week with over 2.5 million jobs created and I say, we’ll take any encouraging news we can get! It’s a very small step, but it’s still a positive sign.

This week, I’m back again to share my family’s meal plan. I’ll tell you what I’m planning to make and suggest ideas for substitutions in case you don’t have everything you need to make the meal I have listed. I’m doing this because finding meal inspiration can be hard. You know what you’re going to get from me is at the very least, gluten free, and most likely paleo or even autoimmune paleo. I have had a terrible time coming up with meal ideas the past couple weeks and I basically do this for a living, so I know if I’m having trouble, you likely are too. We aren’t eating out at all and so cooking every single day can wear on a person! I hope seeing what we’re eating is helpful to you in some small way.

We all have so many stressors right now that keeping your diet as anti-inflammatory as possible is so important. With economic stress, racial tensions, city-wide curfews, fear of contracting a deadly virus, keeping  your body as healthy as possible, is about the best thing you can do!

Ok, let’s get to it, shall we?

If you missed last week’s meal plan, you can catch up here.

That post will show you what we had planned for the week and then below you can see how our plans changed, how I made substitutions, etc.

Monday: The plan was fish sticks, roasted potatoes and okra and that’s indeed what we had. I filmed the fish stick preparation for an upcoming YouTube video. This was a fast and easy meal. You could roast any vegetable or combination of vegetables you like or have on hand. Instead of the fried fish sticks, you could make my super quick salmon. 

Tuesday: Chicken Enchiladas (just the filling) served with corn chips (for my family) and whatever toppings you like – this is my husband’s bowl and he likes sour cream and guacamole. I was planning to make a new version of chicken enchiladas, but then realized I already have several enchilada recipes here so just made the chicken filling recipe in the Instant Pot. I sprinkled some cheese on top and baked it. No one knew, but I put in a TON of mixed greens that were just a little bit past their prime. Yum!

Wednesday: We had leftovers and I forgot to take a picture. My family ate the chicken enchiladas since it made a lot and I made a quick stir-fry of squash, mushrooms and the leftover rice and grilled shrimp my son brought home from work the night before.

Thursday: Waffles, bacon and berry (plus lots of greens) smoothie, as planned. It takes some major convincing to get my gang to try a smoothie. They’re always suspicious of what vegetables I’ve snuck in there. I wonder why??? I kept this one simple with frozen berries, orange juice and a great big bunch of greens. I lied and said it was just spinach, when in fact, it was spinach, kale and chard. What they don’t know won’t hurt them. 🙂  PS. You’ll get the waffle recipe next week.

Friday: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans. I have been feeling very stressed lately and I can certainly tell in my meal selections – lots of comfort food!

My daughter LOVES real mashed potatoes, no cauliflower substitutes. So I make them occasionally just because I’m nice. What I was going for with this meal was good, old-fashioned pan fried chicken, the kind that leaves all the yummy stuff in the skillet that makes really good gravy. The breading on the chicken was a mix of tiger nut flour, arrowroot and cassava. I added a dash of paprika and garlic powder. I dredged each piece of chicken in almond milk and then the flour and fried in a little bit of avocado oil. Really simple and really good.

Saturday: Calabash shrimp, Hushpuppies, Cole Slaw and leftover green beans. The shrimp and hushpuppies were made with all pantry ingredients (except the shrimp themselves which were frozen from Costco), Cole slaw is a super easy veggie side dish made with fresh cabbage, purchased almost three weeks ago. Last week I talked about eating the most perishable produce first. That means, we’re eating a lot of cabbage this week. 🙂 I will add that we’re eating a bit more shrimp and fish lately because the stores have been out of beef, chicken and pork and thankfully, we all enjoy seafood of any kind.

While I was cooking, my sweet tooth came for a visit, so I made up another batch of edible cookie dough. My daughter had made an angel food cake earlier in the day (a gluten free box mix from Aldi), but I don’t tolerate that much refined sugar. This cookie dough is sweetened with a little maple syrup, has a little sugar from the chocolate chips, but otherwise is just almond butter, grass-fed butter, almond flour, walnuts and coconut. It’s really more like a power ball recipe. After I photographed this, I set it down on the table and everyone said they didn’t want any – they wanted cake. But then they said they would just have a little taste. And then the bowl was half empty. Uh huh, it’s good. This is the sort of thing that you could just mix up a single serving if you want. Perhaps I’ll write up the recipe that way, then you can double, triple, quadruple…it if you want to make a family sized batch.

Sunday: Burgers with sautéed mushrooms and onions, oven fried squash with the first crop from my garden, more leftover green beans and I turned the leftover mashed potatoes into potato cakes. Here’s what you do to make the potato cakes: mix your leftover mashed potatoes with an egg yolk and then add a little almond flour and a little arrowroot, salt and pepper, cheese if you like and mix until it’s pretty thick. Then fry the little cakes in a skillet with a little bit of oil – just enough to keep your cakes from sticking. Such a great way to stretch leftovers. I probably had 3/4 of a cup of potatoes, added one egg yolk and 1/2 cup flour.

Here’s what’s on tap for this week:

Monday: scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits with fresh strawberry jam and green smoothie. 

  • This entire meal is centered around the hope that we can go strawberry picking. We’re late in the season, but it just slipped my mind with everything else going on – until I realized we were down to our last jar of homemade jam! I’m writing this Monday morning and still waiting to hear back from the farm where I hope to pick as to whether or not they have berries left today.
  • If looking for substitutions, I have several different biscuit recipes, you can use whatever jam you like, make a quiche instead of scrambled eggs, have bacon instead of sausage, put anything you want in your smoothie, make your family’s favorite breakfast dish, the options go on and on, but everybody loves breakfast for dinner!

Tuesday: Paleo Gumbo with Rice. Another day, another experiment. 

  • I bought a grass-fed smoked sausage on my last Costco trip, so there is a lot of that staring at me every time I open the freezer.
  • I purchased one of those pre-packed packages of chicken on my last Whole Foods trip about a month ago and it’s not enough for my family to make a meal all by itself so I decided to combine a link of the sausage, the small pack of chicken, some canned tomatoes, frozen okra and seasonings and make a gumbo. I’ve never made gumbo before so we’ll see how this goes. I am imagining it turning out much like my jambalaya, but we’ll see.
  • Regarding the chicken: I usually purchase my meat from the meat counter at Whole Foods. That way, I can get exactly the amount that I know my family needs for a meal. The pre-packed chicken is almost always not enough so I end up using two packs and that’s way too much. I know that leaves leftovers, but I’m trying to be real judicious with food usage so I really just want enough for one meal plus one leftover lunch for my husband. In case this is your situation too, consider buying your meat from the butcher directly rather than choosing from the pre-packed options.

Wednesday: Instant Pot Honey Mustard Chicken with frozen broccoli and rice if there is any leftover from Tuesday

  • I made this as an experiment a couple weeks ago and it was really good, so tonight I’ll be filming it for YouTube.
  • My son didn’t love it once I told him it had honey in it. I know, he’s weird, so I’ve chosen to make this on a night that he’s working.
  • It has a little bit of an Asian flair, so I thought broccoli and rice would go well. I have a couple bags of broccoli in the freezer, but you could substitute any vegetable you like.
  • For the rice, you could use any starch you like or cauliflower rice. This would be good with roasted cauliflower as well. If you use cauliflower, you don’t need to have another vegetable on the side. In fact, if you use cauliflower and want a second vegetable, I wouldn’t recommend broccoli because they’re both in the same family so provide similar nutrients. I’d mix it up with something like bell peppers, green beans, or squash.

Thursday: Teriyaki Beef Meatballs and Stir-Fry Vegetables

  • The vegetables are a frozen mix. Last time I shopped at a regular grocery store, I was looking for frozen vegetables and my only choices were the stir-fry mix and okra. Thankfully, we like both of those so I picked up several bags of each.
  • You could serve rice or cauliflower rice with this meal, but we’ve had that already twice this week, so we’ll just do without.
  • The teriyaki beef meatballs will have a similar flavor to my Asian spaghetti or Mongolian Beef so either of those would make a good substitute, but I thought I’d try meatballs for variety.

Friday: Crazy Crust Pizza and whatever vegetable we have left

  • I had the nerve to NOT serve pizza last Friday, so I had to put it on the menu for this week or else endure the wrath of my teenagers.
  • One YouTube viewer asked if the Crazy Crust recipe would work with almond flour so I told her I’d try it next time, which I intend to do.
  • You could choose any one of my pizza recipes as a substitute: paleo pizza crust, sweet potato meatza, paleo pizza bowls or pizza popover.

Saturday: Tuna salad with chips and a vegetable, likely squash

  • I’ve picked up canned tuna everywhere I’ve shopped lately. It’s a great shelf-stable protein and also my boys eat it a lot when they’re camping. They take the kind in foil pouches rather than cans so I stock up on both. This is a super easy meal for a busy Saturday. (We’re not really busy now, but we do tend to do a lot of work around the house so I don’t typically feel like making a big elaborate meal on Saturdays.)
  • I have lots of squash and zucchini coming on in the garden right now so we’re eating a lot of it. We have the occasional cucumber as well. The spinach is just about gone – it’s gotten too hot. We’ll eat whatever we have.
  • A Thrive Market box should arrive mid-week bringing us our favorite avocado oil potato chips and they go really well with tuna salad. PS. If you’re not a Thrive Market member already, I HIGHLY recommend it.

I’m going to stop there for this week. Frankly, it’s a triumph that I have a meal plan for six days. I’ve definitely had a mental block lately. It doesn’t help either that every time I’ve been out of the house in the past couple weeks, I’ve felt like people were not paying attention to the social distancing guidelines. It’s ok with me if you choose to get physically close to other people who choose the same, but I am still being very cautious and like the 6 foot distance we’re supposed to be keeping. We went for a hike yesterday and we passed probably 6 or 7 other groups of people. Only one other got off the trail to give us space. We stepped off the trail for every other group and not one said thank you or even acknowledged us. In fact, at one point, there were two groups who had stopped to talk to each other and, seemingly very begrudgingly, they split so we could walk between them, but were still standing right on the trail so we were just inches from them. I just don’t understand. This is a serious disease, cases are still growing by leaps and bounds and lots of people around us are at very high risk. All that to say, I’m not going out unless I have to. In some ways that makes it easier to plan meals. I only have so much food here so our choices are somewhat limited. I’m trying to be as creative as I can with what we have. I find that if I keep the meals interesting (and, of course, tasting delicious) then everyone is happy and they’re not begging for gluten-containing foods or even much non-paleo stuff.

That’s it from here this week. I hope you go out (or stay in) and make it a good one. Remember to lead with love and understanding. We very rarely know what’s really going on in the lives of the people we encounter on a daily basis so assume the best in everyone.

Paleo Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Well, I’m currently eating my words (and thankfully, also some really tasty bagels). Let me explain: my daughter has been begging me to make paleo, or even just gluten free, bagels for years. Years! And I have put her off and put her off because I didn’t think it would be possible to get that chewy texture that you need in a bagel without gluten.

I didn’t want to make something that is round and maybe shiny on top and therefore looks like a bagel from the outside, but in the end, doesn’t at all resemble a bagel in taste or texture.

Then one day we had a pandemic and everyone was forced to stay home. And then we could go out again, but we decided we would be more conservative and stay home longer and my husband and I have found ourselves saying “yes” to more things at home than ever before. “Yes” to more TV than normal. “Yes” to video games. “Yes” to bagels.

I’ve stocked up on all the paleo flours because we’ve been doing a lot of baking experimentation: almond flour, arrowroot, coconut flour, tapioca starch, tiger nut flour and on and on.

So pandemic + stocked pantry + saying no to seeing friends = time with mom in the kitchen trying to make paleo bagels.

And you know what? It can be done. I was so shocked honestly that I just had to hurry up and get this recipe out to you. You will want to make these. They are easy, don’t require anything particularly weird (you do need yeast, which I know has been hard to come by), and pretty fast to put together. If you’re an early riser, you could even whip up a batch of these to surprise your people for breakfast.

I made most of mine cinnamon raisin and left a couple plain with some flake salt on top, but you can leave them plain or add that “Everything but the bagel” seasoning from Trader Joe’s that everyone loves.

Make a double batch and freeze some for later. These would also make great travel food because they’re hearty and extremely filling.

One word of caution: you need to use the flours listed and do not substitute. And the tapioca flour is key. Many people do not tolerate large quantities of tapioca (stomach upset and constipation are most common). So go slow. These are really good and you are going to be tempted to eat more than one, but don’t do it unless you know you can eat tapioca with abandon and not suffer any consequences.

A couple important notes:

  1. Be on the lookout for a paleo soft pretzel recipe because it’s realllll similar to this one!
  2. You really need to weigh your ingredients, especially the flours and the eggs. It’s way more precise than measuring and will yield the best result.
  3. Regarding number 2, be sure to read the notes below the recipe because I recommend a couple ingredients and kitchen tools you are going to want to have for this recipe.
  4. These are best when eaten fresh. If you don’t eat them all the first day, just slice them and toast them and then they will be perfect again!

Ok, enough chit chat…let’s get on with the bagel making.

May Research Round-Up: Organic Vs. Conventional

Most of us have been living with organic food options for what seems like forever, but it’s actually a fairly new program. In this research round-up, I’ll provide a little background information on the organic program in the United States, what it means for you and your grocery shopping and then provide a refresher on what should be purchased in its organic form if possible and where you can save your dollars.

The National Organic Program (NOP) is the federal regulatory framework in the United States of America governing organic food. Prior to 1990, organic farming did exist, but there was no regulation, no legal oversight or consistency in the term “organic” found on products. NOP is also the name of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) program responsible for administering and enforcing the regulatory framework. The core mission of the NOP is to protect the integrity of the USDA organic seal. The seal is used for products adhering to USDA standards that contain at least 95% organic ingredients.

The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 required that the USDA develop national standards for organic products, and the final rule establishing the NOP was first published in 2000.

The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 “requires the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances which identifies synthetic substances that may be used, and the nonsynthetic substances that cannot be used, in organic production and handling operations.” It also restricts the use of the term “organic” to certified organic producers. Certification is handled by state, non-profit and private agencies that have been approved by the USDA.

NOP regulations cover in detail all aspects of food production, processing, delivery and retail sale. Under the NOP, farmers and food processors who wish to use the word organic in reference to their businesses and products, must be certified organic. Producers with annual sales not exceeding $5,000 are exempted and do not require certification (however, they must still follow NOP standards, including keeping records and submitting to a production audit if requested, and cannot use the term certified organic).

Products labeled “100 percent organic”, “organic”, or “made with organic ingredients” must adhere to the Organic Production and Handling Requirements. A USDA Organic seal identifies raw, fresh, and processed products with at least 95% organic ingredients. A product that has not been certified organic by a USDA-authorized certifying agent may not bear the USDA organic seal. Products containing at least 70 percent organically produced ingredients may include a “Made with Organic” label to specify up to three ingredients or ingredient categories. They can not use the USDA organic seal or represent that the finished product is organic. Misuse of the USDA Organic seal on a product may lead to USDA compliance and enforcement actions, including hefty fines fines possible suspension or revocation of the violator’s organic certificate.

This is the symbol you’re looking for


Many people believe the FDA has oversight of organic practices in the US, but they do not. The USDA oversees the program and enforces the NOP regulations and standards. They regulate use of the term “organic” on food labels. The USDA requirements for products that are labeled with the term “organic” are separate from the laws that FDA enforces. Food products that are ordinarily under FDA’s jurisdiction and labeled with organic claims must comply with both USDA NOP regulations for the organic claim and FDA regulations for food labeling and safety.

Established by Congress in 2001, the NOP develops and enforces uniform national standards for organically-produced agricultural products sold in the United States. Operating as a public-private partnership, NOP accredits private companies and helps train their inspectors to certify that farms and businesses meet the national organic standards.  USDA and accredited certifiers also work together to enforce the standards, ensuring a level playing field for producers and protecting consumer confidence in the integrity of the USDA Organic Seal.

USDA organic products have strict production and labeling requirements. A few things that might disqualify an item from organic certification are the use of synthetic fertilizers, GMOs, antibiotics, growth hormones, and feed made from animal byproducts. If you recall, in the GMO article, I stated that if you are looking for non-GMO foods, buying organic will guarantee that you are getting non-GMO. 

While most synthetic pesticides are banned from organic farming, a long list of more “natural” substances are allowed by the USDA. Some pesticides commonly used by organic farms include copper, sulfur, dairy cultures, and vitamin B.

Buying organic doesn’t have to be limited to the supermarket. The cotton that’s grown on organic farms can be found in products like clothing, feminine hygiene products, and cotton swabs.

While there’s no noticeable difference in nutrition between organic and conventionally farmed food, buying organic offers other benefits. Organic practices like regular crop rotation and minimum tillage is good for the soil, and helps to cultivate land that’s more sustainable and rich in nutrients. Issues like groundwater pollution, carbon emissions, and threats to local wildlife are all reduced when farms go organic.

The largest studies of the health effects of eating an organic diet have been carried out in France. In one group of more than 54,000 men and women, those eating organic foods were less likely to develop diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. This link was more pronounced among men, who ate more meat and other animal-based foods than women. Among other studies, one looked at nearly 69,000 French adults and found that eating mostly organic foods reduced cancer risk by 25 percent. Hundreds of studies have looked at the nutritional profiles of various foods. Overall, they’ve found that organic fruits and vegetables have higher levels of protective antioxidants. And organic meat, milk, and eggs contain more beneficial fats, especially anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats.

A report by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, which includes data from the FDA, estimates that more than 2,000 chemicals are allowed as additives in conventional food. Known health risks of such chemicals include hormone disruption, cancer, inflammation, brain damage, kidney stones, gout, disruption of gut bacteria, and other digestive problems. In addition, some of these chemicals are known polluters of our air and water. Pesticides and weed killers cause additional harm. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, the world’s most popular weed killer, is considered a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization. 

Antibiotics are fed to conventionally raised animals to promote growth and prevent infection in cramped quarters. This practice leads to bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics. Antibiotic residues make it to our plate, in meat and dairy products, and contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans. At Emory University in Atlanta, a comparison between conventional and organic milk found residues of antibiotics, including drugs that are banned from use in lactating cows, in 60 percent of conventional milk. Organic milk contained none. In conventional milk, Emory researchers also found extremely high levels of growth hormone and, in up to 60 percent of samples, pesticides that included chlorpyrifos, which damages the brain. Organic milk did not contain any of these.

The evidence currently strongly suggests that avoiding pesticides and antibiotics in our food supply is beneficial for both the producers, the animals involved and the consumers, but as the National Organic Program is still relatively young, more research is necessary.

Every year, the Environmental Working Group creates a list of the produce highest in pesticides and therefore recommends you buy those in their organic form whenever possible.

Their Clean 15 list shows the produce lowest in pesticides and therefore okay to purchase in the conventional form. Below are the current recommendations:

What makes these so bad? Strawberries, which top the list as having the highest levels of residue, can contain 22 different types of pesticide residues on just one sample. One-third of all non-organic strawberries contain 10 or more pesticide residues. Spinach also makes the top of the list, coming in at the second spot. The pesticide report found that 97 percent of conventional spinach samples contain pesticide residues. In addition to pesticides, many spinach samples contained high concentrations of permethrin, a neurotoxin and insecticide that can cause transient burning, itching, skin swelling, redness, rash, and numbness or tingling of the skin. Neurotoxins affect the nervous system by damaging nerve tissue.

If you need one of these dirty dozen items and can’t find or afford the organic version, there are recommendations on how to best clean the produce. This can be tricky as some of these are very tender and can be easily damaged. If you are needing to wash a sturdier piece of produce like an apple or peach, run the fruit under cool water for several minutes, rubbing or scrubbing. You can also use a mixture of water and baking soda and scrub. The addition of baking soda has been shown to remove more pesticide residue than water alone.

For tender produce like strawberries, running under cool water alone is best so as not to damage the fruit. But you need to rinse them for several minutes and do this just before eating. If you rinse the berries ahead of time, the excess moisture will keep them from lasting as long.

You can also rinse with a solution of water and vinegar, but most people don’t enjoy the vinegar smell or taste that may linger, which is why baking soda is more recommended.

Even with careful cleaning, it is difficult to remove all of the pesticide residue, especially from tender produce like berries or leafy greens so finding a way to purchase the organic versions is highly recommended.

Bottom line: From the research that has been published, it is evident that eating the “dirty dozen” items in their organic form is highly recommended. Check the EWG’s website each year to see if the list has changed and then shop accordingly.

I do think that organic produce has become more readily available and more affordable in recent years. Sometimes, organic versions are even less expensive than their conventional counterparts. Just pay attention and shop around. And don’t forget that the buy organic recommendation applies to all versions of these items – frozen, canned and packaged products made from these items. As always, do your best and don’t let striving for perfection trip you up on your journey!

 

Weekly Meal Plan: We’re still at home – Week 8

I wrote most of this post earlier in the week, prior to my awareness of what is going on in our country regarding racism. Honestly, I’ve been avoiding the news as much as possible because it’s so negative. I feel like I need to stay aware of what’s happening in my local community and state, but I don’t know how to receive that information and not feel so devastated and yucky afterward. So I was a few days late to seeing what has been going on with George Floyd and the resulting violence. This is not the place to enter into that discussion, but I didn’t feel I could ignore it completely and start talking about food. If you are a praying person, please pray for peace and love to prevail in our country. I feel like so much is out of our control right now, but we can control our own behavior and our words and we can PRAY. God is in control and that is the one thing for sure that we can rest on.

I do want to provide you some meal inspiration for your week. Especially now, as you may be distracted by what is going on in the country and the world. Try not to let the stresses around you affect your health. Below you will find what I had written previously and snapshots of last week’s meals and what’s planned for this week.

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The country may be “opening up,” but my family is staying firmly planted at home. I took a trip to my local Costco yesterday (Thursday) thinking all would be hunky dorry, as Costco had been the place I felt safest shopping. They had been doing such a great job of crowd control and enforcing social distancing. Well, I don’t know what happened, but all of that was over. It was back to normal, except that everyone had on a mask. They were out of toilet paper again and I witnessed a fight over one package. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

That little excursion made it very clear to me that this girl is not ready to get back out there. Our virus numbers have reach all time highs, both in terms of confirmed cases and hospitalizations. My fridge and freezer are stocked up again for a few more weeks and I’ll continue to share what we’re eating in hopes that it will help you figure out how to continue feeding yourself or your family healthy, nutritious meals at home.

Week 7’s Meal Plan just went out on Wednesday so this one will be a a little shorter.

Here’s what we ended up eating last week:

Wednesday: Nut-crusted Snapper and roasted cauliflower

I had planned to make kale salad with the snapper, but honestly, the snapper is a little labor intensive (but totally worth it) and the cauliflower needed to be eaten ASAP. Getting that chopped and in the oven was super quick, giving me time to devote to the snapper.

Thursday: the plan was hotdogs, oven fried okra and applesauce. We ended up having chicken nuggets (from the freezer), tater tots (from the freezer) and spinach. Not exciting, but honestly, I was worn out from my Costco trip and feeling stressed over some meetings I had earlier in the day and just needed a “no thought required” dinner. This fit the bill. PS. There are the gluten free nuggets from Costco and we didn’t really like them. We much prefer the Bell & Evans brand available from Whole Foods. PPS. I highly recommend you keep some convenience foods at home for days like this – when you don’t feel like cooking and don’t feel like going out. There are lots of frozen and packaged gluten free foods available now. They certainly aren’t ideal, but sometimes life doesn’t allow for ideal. And generally, any meal you make at home is going to be better for you than what you would grab quickly at a restaurant.

Friday: The plan was pizza and veggies with my girl, but the boys decided they wanted to eat with us before their camping trip. Um, this disturbed my plans a bit, but I love them so I said ok. I ended up making a quick spaghetti sauce with ground beef from the freezer and a jar of Rao’s marinara sauce that’s been sitting in the pantry. I cooked some gluten free pasta, mixed it all together and topped it with cheese for a quick baked spaghetti. I have a baked spaghetti recipe that uses spaghetti squash and I much prefer that recipe, but I had all the ingredients on hand to make this quick version (crucial, these days) and it was super fast to throw together at the last minute. I added a big bunch of spinach and some mushrooms to the sauce so I wouldn’t have to worry about a side dish.

Saturday: My family ate leftovers and I had eggs with one of our test bagels and leftover roasted cauliflower. 

Just ignore the smoked sausage on the plate. I cooked that thinking I’d want it, but was too full after the cauliflower, egg and bagel. One of my *always hungry* children will eat that sausage for a snack.

Bagels! My kids love bagels and beg for them whenever I go shopping someplace that has a gluten free variety. I can’t say as I’ve ever had one of the store bought gluten free bagels, but I used to eat bagels all the time in my gluten eating days and I know what a good bagel is supposed to taste like. So much has to do with the texture and I was pretty certain you could not replicate that in a gluten free version and certainly not in a paleo version. Well, I’m eating my words – and a lot of bagels! My daughter has been begging me to make some and so with the boys away, I figured it was the perfect time to try it. I found two recipes on the internet that seemed ok – not too complicated, not too many ingredients – and we set to work.

Both versions tasted ok, but one was definitely better than the other. I’ve made another batch, tweaking a few things and am getting that recipe all ready for you right now. I feel bad showing you what we’re eating when so many of the foods are experimental recipes and I can’t give you the recipe for a while, so I’m working real hard to get this one to you pronto. I hope you will give these a try!

The best bagels! Totally paleo and made in a variety of flavors including blueberry and cinnamon raisin.
Nice flavor, but a little off in the texture department.

Sunday: Costco Pizza and salad

I know, I know. I was seriously lacking motivation, inspiration and time this week. Just so you know, I always make sure we have plenty of plant foods to go along with our main dish, whether it’s something fancy like the pecan-encrusted red snapper or something simple like a frozen pizza. It’s all about balance. I forgot to snap a picture, but I ended up having a big bowl of greens topped with some of those gluten free chicken nuggets you saw earlier in the week, while my family enjoyed the pizza.

Let’s move on to next week and hope for better things! Here’s my plan as it stands right now:

Monday: Fresh Fish Sticks, roasted potatoes and okra

  • I picked up salmon filets the last time I was at Aldi so I’ll be making those into fish sticks and filming that for YouTube
  • Roasted potatoes – just like all roasted veggies, just tossed with avocado oil or bacon grease, season as you like (we love the Cajun seasoning) and roasted until crispy outside and tender inside
  • Since the oven will be on anyway, I’ll fix another tray with okra and roast that too

Tuesday: Chicken enchilada casserole

  • This is an experiment, but the plan is simple shredded chicken breasts I’ll prepare in the Instant Pot, mixed with enchilada sauce, some sautéed veggies and baked, topped with cheese.
  • Lots of possible substitutions for this one: use any meat you like or have on hand, leave out the cheese, make a cashew cheese sauce instead of using real dairy. We don’t do cashew sauces because my son is allergic, but I’ve heard they’re an amazing dairy substitute. Here’s one that looks good. (I would leave out the miso and maybe substitute with some coconut aminos.)
  • If you have made a batch of my AIP tortillas, you could layer those into the casserole and get more of an authentic enchilada experience.

Wednesday: Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Broccoli

  • I have a really old recipe for paleo fried chicken and gravy and feel like making that over. I’ve been watching some of my old favorite Food Network stars on YouTube and Paula Deen made fried chicken recently and that’s what inspired this one.
  • You could make just the fried chicken and serve it with any vegetables you have on hand.
  • As I proof this post early Monday morning, I’m not feeling like having such a heavy meal when it’s supposed to reach 90 degrees on Wednesday, so this meal is very likely to change. My daughter loves mashed potatoes so that piece might stay. 🙂

Thursday: Waffles, bacon and fruit

  • My family has just been screaming for waffles lately and since I’ve just created a recipe using the All Purpose Baking Mix, it’s an easy request to fulfill. (Look for this recipe June 10th).
  • Substitute my pumpkin paleo pancakes, which are always a hit, even when it’s not pumpkin season.

Friday: Calabash style shrimp, hushpuppies and slaw

  • Wild-caught, peeled and deveined shrimp reappeared at my Costco so I snatched them up. They make such a fast and easy meal! Instead of frying them, you could simply sauté in a little ghee or coconut oil or skewer them and grill them. That’s what we’ve been doing lately and everyone loves it!
  • Hushpuppies are because I’m craving them, but substitute any of my bread or biscuit recipes like this one, this one, or this one.
  • As for the vegetable course, any fresh salad greens you have would be a great substitute for the slaw. We’ve had a lot of slaw lately because cabbage lasts so long and I’ve been only shopping every few weeks. If you’re not doing that already, think about this when you do your shopping – buy some veggies that are more perishable and others that have a longer “shelf” life and use accordingly. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bell peppers, heartier greens like collards and kale all last longer in the fridge than squash, mushrooms, tender greens and the like.

Saturday: I’m thinking burgers and oven-fried squash

  • Hoping for squash from the garden, but if they’re not ready yet, we’ll have another vegetable, likely okra because I have a lot of it in the freezer.
  • Burgers because everyone loves them, they’re fast and easy, and grass-fed ground beef has been available the last few times I’ve gone shopping so I have a few packages in the freezer.

That’s it for this week. I hope and pray your week is a good one. Always lead with kindness and understanding, think the best of people, remember that we don’t know what’s going on in the private lives of most of the people we encounter so be compassionate, slow to anger, quick to love.